SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2011 - The 2012 edition of the Herd Racing calendar has arrived from the printers and is available online in our team store on this website.  You can go directly there by clicking this link http://herdracing.com/calendar.php or you can click on the Store icon or the 2012 calendar advertisement on the front of our home page if you want to check it out later.  Copies are available by mail for $10 which includes postage, or you can download the calendar for free and print it out on your own color printer.  For the first year, all of the photos feature our tunnel boats.

The calendar was the last piece of the puzzle we needed in the office to begin sending out some 2012 sponsor renewal packets to our supporters from last year.  While the 2012 race schedule is still probably a few more months away from being finalized, we already have lodging sponsorships in more than half of the cities we plan to visit.  Every hotel we stayed in last year has verbally offered to extend the agreement to 2012.  That tells us that they saw value in their agreement, which is one of our highest objectives. Our team asks for a lot in a lodging contract, but we also provide a lot as well.  The hotel staff gets t-shirts, hats, a Friday night appearance of the boats, press releases, post race photo CD and advertising and news stories on our website, not to mention a large plastic cutout image of the boat showing their logo in race action and some race calendars during the off season.  We keep in touch every couple of months with a little goodie of some sort to make sure we haven't been forgotton about when the next summer rolls around.  You might ask why we go to so much effort and expense for a hotel room.  Well, seeing that we usually fill at least six rooms during a race weekend and we try to bed the families in a nice place with a restaurant and pool, the effort saves us on average $2000 a race.  That's why!

And, I am excited to be able to hint that a significant sponsorship for our 2012 race season is nearing completion.  The contract has been presented and the company is meeting on Monday to endorse the contract.  Herd Racing, baring any glitches in the next 48 hours, will be making an announcement on or before December 15 about the agreement.  It will include sponsorship on both our Formula 2 and Formula 3 boats in 2012 for all of our season races.  Not full sponsorship, but for every decal you see on our boat there is something which benefits the team behind it.  Sometimes money, sometimes hotel rooms, sometimes food, sometimes product we can use.  Regardless, it all makes it possible to go racing.  Stay tuned this coming week for more news on this announcement.

Over the next two or three months you will continue to see stories on our website announcing agreements with new sponsors and re-signing of agreements with some sponsors from last year.  So far things are progressing very nicely and I believe our sponsorship situation in 2012 will be far ahead of where we were going into 2011.

That being said, some more time can be spent in the off-season doing what will show at the race events.  We are working in our hauler, building new storage areas so we can transport a second power head and lower unit for each boat, as well as an assortment of tools and supplies we might need.  We also hope to have time to relight, paint and upgrade the interior of our hauler trailer to compliment the addition of a new onboard generator.  And, more importantly, hopefully these improvements will allow us to spend some more time on making our boats faster and more competitive on the water.

We will have new power heads, new propellers and a little more seat time so hopefully 2012 will be the year we begin taking some strides up into the pack!

Dana Tomes